Wahoo Elemnt ...

[Aushiker]

So far so good with with my newly purchased Wahoo Elemnt, well except for one little thing. I went to try out the Take Me To... routing feature in the Wahoo Elemnt app. The result is shown below:



As you can see the app has me riding on water. It appears to be assuming that the Rottnest Island ferry service provides a commuter service here; it does not.

Now when I map a similar route in Google Maps I get a more logical route. You can see the Google Maps route here.

I have raised this with Wahoo Support but curious if others have experienced anything similar or have some suggestions on how to avoid this happening.

[RonK]

Interesting. I suspect it's in the map detail. So you are using Android - what mapping does the app use?

Since I have an iPhone it's using Apple Maps, which also maps ferry routes poorly. Google Maps does quite well.

[Aushiker]

Interesting. I suspect it's in the map detail. So you are using Android - what mapping does the app use?

Since I have an iPhone it's using Apple Maps, which also maps ferry routes poorly. Google Maps does quite well.

Google maps which is why I was a bit surprised. I assumed it would be the same and choose the cycling options. Doing it in Google Maps on the phone it matches the website Google Maps.

I have asked in the Wahoo Elemnts Google group and pinged Wahoo Support. Maybe something that needs fixing in a future firmware update.

[Aushiker]

Received a response from Wahoo Support:

I am sorry you are having this issue. The maps are pulled from OpenStreetMap and I assume they think there is a ferry there. I will pass this along to our developers.

Interestingly doing the same routing in say http://ridewithgps/.com using both Open Street Maps and Open Cycling Maps produces a pretty good route.

Wahoo's "Take Me Anywhere" feature which they are promoting in emails does not. Here is another beaut example:

[RonK]

Good to be aware of this although I have never used the navigation feature. I've tried a few local routes and it seems it is some ferries that are problematic.

Hmmm, perhaps not - Wahoo has found a legitimate ferry service (that I didn't know existed) to a Moreton Island location. It's not the closest to my starting location but real nonetheless. The other routes including ferries work as expected.

No doubt these are valid ferry services whereas the Rotto ferry is not a valid cross river service.

[Aushiker]

That last screen grab would have me doing 76 odd kms to get to a point about three to four kms away and ridable at at that.

It has been suggested elsewhere that Wahoo take the OSM mapping data and do their thing to it. Maybe they should leave it alone.

[RonK]

No doubt a fix will be forthcoming in a future Elemnt Software Update.

[Aushiker]

No doubt a fix will be forthcoming in a future Elemnt Software Update.

Hope so. I tried an inland route, home to work and that matches pretty much what Google comes up with, but interestingly RidewithGPS comes up with a longer by three kilometre route but one which is more bike friendly.

Wahoo needs to take on board RidewithGPS routing algorithm

[Aushiker]

Firmware update ..

2 Oct 2017
ELEMNT WF42-1705

Share Sites

ELEMNT BOLT can now share to the following sites on iOS and Android:

Komoot - https://www.komoot.com/
Cycling Analytics - https://www.cyclinganalytics.com
PowerTraxx - https://www.powertraxx.de

Additionally, Android users can now share with:
Google Fit - https://www.google.com/fit
Dropbox - https://www.dropbox.com

Other
Various bug fixes

Like the Dropbox integration. Handy for backing up each ride.

[RonK]

Like the Dropbox integration. Handy for backing up each ride.

I sync my rides automatically to RWGPS for backup. Within a few moments of pressing the button on the Elemnt to end the ride, my phone pings and it's visible in the RWGPS app.

Also the routes I create in RWGPS are automatically synced to the Wahoo app. On the Elemnt I choose the route and it is downloaded instantly. It's just so easy.

[Aushiker]

I also sync my rides to RidewithGPS + Strava + Google Fit + Garmin Connect (via https://tapiriik.com/#) and the data even with Samsung Health via an app called Health Sync, but I like the Dropbox approach as it gives me a copy of the actual *.fit file. That way I don't have to rely on the other services to stay live or download from them if I want a copy of the actual ride data.

[Aushiker]

Had a chance on Sunday to test the battery life on the Wahoo Elemnt:

* Backlight off
* Cadence and speed sensors connected
* Heart Rate Monitor connected
* Following route on map
* Synced to phone

50% of battery used over 4 hours and 47 minutes which suggests ~ 9.5 hours of battery life. Well short of the claimed times

[biker jk]

Had a chance on Sunday to test the battery life on the Wahoo Elemnt:

* Backlight off
* Cadence and speed sensors connected
* Heart Rate Monitor connected
* Following route on map
* Synced to phone

50% of battery used over 4 hours and 47 minutes which suggests ~ 9.5 hours of battery life. Well short of the claimed times

I think you'll find it's not linear. I get around 12-13 hours using navigation and the same sensors you used. I only ever need a battery charger on 300km rides like the one I did on Saturday.

[Newcastle Dave]

I think you'll find it's not linear. I get around 12-13 hours using navigation and the same sensors you used. I only ever need a battery charger on 300km rides like the one I did on Saturday.

I have an elemnt Bolt. Did the Around the Bay 250 k ride (slowly). It still had around 25% charge after 10 1/2 - 11 hours. The only sensor I had was a cadence one

[Aushiker]

I think you'll find it's not linear. I get around 12-13 hours using navigation and the same sensors you used. I only ever need a battery charger on 300km rides like the one I did on Saturday.

I did notice that the usage % declined did slow over the ride which makes sense given your comments. I wonder if having the phone off would make a difference as well.

[biker jk]

I think you'll find it's not linear. I get around 12-13 hours using navigation and the same sensors you used. I only ever need a battery charger on 300km rides like the one I did on Saturday.

I did notice that the usage % declined did slow over the ride which makes sense given your comments. I wonder if having the phone off would make a difference as well.

The battery life I get is based on not having the phone paired.

[stevecassidy]

I had some issues with my Bolt yesterday on the Bowral Classic ride. After around 100km I started getting GPS dropouts - red flashes on the LEDs with beeps, followed by a blanked out speed readout. This was just for brief periods at first but later for much longer. In some cases I was riding through trees so satellite visibility might have been reduced, but other times I was out in the open.

The resulting file on Strava looks ok, perhaps because I was following a route and the Bolt filled in the gaps. But the lack of speed and climb readouts was a bit annoying on the ride.

Has anyone else seen something like this?

Steve

[RonK]

I had some issues with my Bolt yesterday on the Bowral Classic ride. After around 100km I started getting GPS dropouts - red flashes on the LEDs with beeps, followed by a blanked out speed readout. This was just for brief periods at first but later for much longer. In some cases I was riding through trees so satellite visibility might have been reduced, but other times I was out in the open.

The resulting file on Strava looks ok, perhaps because I was following a route and the Bolt filled in the gaps. But the lack of speed and climb readouts was a bit annoying on the ride.

Has anyone else seen something like this?

Steve

I saw this complaint on one if my Facebook groups just yesterday. Wondering if it was caused by the last firmware update. Did you install it?

[stevecassidy]

I saw this complaint on one if my Facebook groups just yesterday. Wondering if it was caused by the last firmware update. Did you install it?

I did yes, so hopefully this can be fixed again in the next update.

Just checked the ride on Strava again and looking more closely, there are big chunks of the ride missing where the GPS dropped out. It appears to have filled in the elevation on the ride - presumably from the route - but speed, hr, power and cadence are missing. This is annoying since at least HR and Power were displaying ok, it would be good if it recorded those even if it can't get position from GPS.

Steve

[RonK]

I saw this complaint on one if my Facebook groups just yesterday. Wondering if it was caused by the last firmware update. Did you install it?

I did yes, so hopefully this can be fixed again in the next update.

Just checked the ride on Strava again and looking more closely, there are big chunks of the ride missing where the GPS dropped out. It appears to have filled in the elevation on the ride - presumably from the route - but speed, hr, power and cadence are missing. This is annoying since at least HR and Power were displaying ok, it would be good if it recorded those even if it can't get position from GPS.

Steve

Have you reported it to Wahoo?

[kb]

Just checked the ride on Strava again and looking more closely, there are big chunks of the ride missing where the GPS dropped out. It appears to have filled in the elevation on the ride - presumably from the route - but speed, hr, power and cadence are missing. This is annoying since at least HR and Power were displaying ok, it would be good if it recorded those even if it can't get position from GPS.

Likely it did and Strava cut them out. I wonder if changing the ride to stationary/trainer shows the missing bits?

[Aushiker]

I saw the red lights a couple times on my long ride on Sunday. At the time I assumed it was caused by being slightly off the route [riding a path versus the actual route being the nearby road]. Hadn't consider the possibility of a satellite drop-out. It has been mentioned in the Wahoo Group at Google as well.

[stevecassidy]

Have you reported it to Wahoo?

Just did that now, we'll see if they respond.

Steve

[stevecassidy]

Have you reported it to Wahoo?

Just did that now, we'll see if they respond.

Well, excellent response from Wahoo, I got a reply overnight and following a few emails, they have referred it to the local distributor who has just sent me a shipping note to return the Bolt for a replacement. They said that the degree of dropout in my ride was unusually high and probably indicated a faulty unit.

Steve

[stevecassidy]

Just following up on this, one week later and I have a new Bolt from FE Sports. Very impressive customer service, never experienced such a quick and clear response to a problem before.

Kudos to Wahoo and FE Sports!

Steve